An octogenarian couple has built up a multi-million pound international network of spiritual healing centres – with the help of members who donated their wealth to the “Family”.

She is the granddaughter of a French Count, a former ballerina who claims she has healing powers to treat broken bones and even cancer.Yet despite her exotic background, perhaps the most remarkable thing about 80-year-old Rena Denton is her power of persuasion.In January this year a judge ruled that the strong influence of Mrs Denton, or Mata Yogananda Mahasaya Dhama as she is known, was sufficient to convince a former Army intelligence officer and his wife to hand over the keys to their £800,000 converted farmhouse.In 2003, Richard Curtis, his wife Fiananda and their young son had joined the enlightened “Family” who run The Self Realization Healing Centre, a charity founded by Mrs Denton and her husband Peter, 81, in the village of Queen Camel, near Yeovil, Somerset.

Thanks Justice - I was heartened to read that that the courts have accepted that the people involved were somehow "brainwashed" or "conned" into signing over their properties, and that the Charity Commission seem to have been given a prod towards looking more closely at this organisation. Let's hope they look at the SES as well. Speaking of money and properties the old St.James boys School in Twickenham has been sold (for a new co-ed private school) on an asking price of £7million. The SES will need every penny I expect, given the depth of the recession we are likely to experience. As reported in the Richmond and Twickenham Times: http://richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news8393621. (Enter Pope's Villa on the Search engine for the related articles.)

I think it is about time that more attention was paid to the multi million pound finances of the School of Economic Science and St. James Independent Schools. I think this subject is worthy of a new thread which I will now open.

P.S. Your link to the Richmond and Twickenham Times doesn't appear to be working.